This totally reminds me of stuff my mom would do. The year I was into "Clue" and "Encyclopedia Brown," I had a mystery birthday, complete with cutout "footprints" leading up to the door and a magnifying glass shaped cake. One year my sister had an aquatic birthday complete with blue-colored icing on the cake and games like flipping rubber frogs out of our wading pool with spatulas.

Mom and I had our issues, but the birthday parties - personal, made with love, on a shoestring budget - always remind me of how much she loved (loves) me.

Nice work, mom.